


129 Ways

by miratorpenium



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Awkward Flirting, Blow Jobs, Boss/Employee Relationship, Clueless Rey (at first), Dirty Talk, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff and Crack, Idiots in Love, It's Real Awkward Folks, Mirror Sex, Nerdy Ben Solo, Office Sex, Pining Ben Solo, Poe ships it, Power Imbalance, seriously though, thigh riding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 08:46:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24966940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miratorpenium/pseuds/miratorpenium
Summary: Ben Solo awkwardly seduces Rey as he fumbles his way through tips from a 1958 article detailing 129 ways to get a husband.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 71
Kudos: 356





	1. HOW TO LET HIM KNOW YOU'RE THERE

**Author's Note:**

> I know I'm late to the party with this one, but I just read [this article](https://www.boredpanda.com/how-to-get-men-1950s-dating-article-magazine-mccalls/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic) of actual advice to 1950's women on how to catch a man and all I could think of was Awkward Boss Man(TM) Ben Solo trying them out on Rey. 
> 
> Chapter titles taken directly from section headings of the article.

##### 37\. Walk up to him and tell him you need some advice.

_Hey boss,  
I saw this and thought of you. Hope these tips are helpful <3.  
Kisses,  
Poe_

_ATCH: 129 Ways to Get a Husband_

Ben was going to fire him. He was. He was finally going to do it. He clicked the link anyway, just to see.

_Number 31: Stumble when you walk into a room that he’s in._ He heard a laugh and looked out of his open door to see Rey chatting with his receptionist. He pictured her falling against him every time she entered a room. Hm.  
_Number 34: Wear a Band-Aid. People always ask what happened._ Ridiculous.  
_Number 38: Dropping the handkerchief still works._ Ben snorted. 

He needed to get back to work. He stared at the proposal in front of him and back up at Rey. _37: Walk up to him and tell him you need some advice._ Well, that wasn’t so absurd. She had fantastic ideas. He valued her opinion.

“Ms. Johnson, could you come in here for a moment please? I’d like to get your thoughts on these revisions.”

##### 61\. If he has bought you any trinket or accessory, wear it.

He had been working his way through the list. What did he really have to lose? A year of pining had clearly done nothing and it wasn’t like he had any pride left anyway. She hadn't seemed to notice his attempts so far. A week ago she had left a pen in his office after working with him on another proposal he had asked her to look at. He had wanted to scoff at the ballpoint pen. This was a _professional_ office after all, and no self-respecting adult should use _blue_ ink, much less a blue fucking _ballpoint_ , but he found himself reaching for it in place of his custom fountain pen more often than not. He had tucked it into his suit pocket- with a pocket protector of course, he wasn’t a barbarian- so it was within easy reach.

“Mr. Solo, could you spare a second to sign off on these reports?” It was her, she was here, in his office, walking in like she didn’t mind being around him.

“Of course.” He was so proud of how his voice didn’t crack, and it was already a habit now, to reach up for her pen in his pocket. He saw the moment she realized-

“Is that my pen?” She didn’t seem mad. Bewildered was the closest he could get to describing her tone.

“Ah- I.” A pause. “Yes, do you want it back?”

“No! No, it’s fine, I just...” she trailed off and then shoved the papers under his nose, staring at the fountain pen sitting proudly in the stand on his desk.

He knew his ears were red as he signed the forms and thanked all the gods that his hair was long enough to cover them.

#####  41\. Don’t let him fish for your name the next time you meet. None of this “guess who” stuff.

She was out of breath. A hand leaning on the doorframe, a few hairs escaping her buns. The folder she was holding was barely containing the mass of rumpled papers it was stuffed with.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to be late, I missed my train,” she was hurrying in now, tugging on her skirt hem, plopping down next to Poe and Hux in front of his desk, “I hope you didn’t wait for me to start, Mr. Solo-“

“Ben,” he blurted out, a little too loud. He cleared his throat. “Ben will do.”

Poe was looking at him with narrowed eyes. Ben could almost see the gears turning in his head. He was going to fire him. He was really going to do it.

“Oh. Okay. I hope you didn’t wait for me to start. Um. Ben.” Her cheeks were pink and she was very seriously studying an upside down form in her lap.

He must have blacked out for the rest of the meeting, because the next thing he knew she was gone and Poe was blowing him a kiss as he walked out of his office.

##### 44\. Learn how to bake tasty apple pies. Bring one into the office and let eligible bachelors taste it.

Getting the recipe from Leia had been like pulling out his own teeth. She haggled and bartered like a Phoenician sailor, cheating him out of personal details and life updates for each ingredient at an absurdly high exchange rate. She absolutely swindled him, making him answer questions- “but how are you _doing_ , Benji,”- for tips on how to make a flaky crust and how to keep his apples crisp instead of soggy, and before he knew it he had promised to come to dinner next Friday and call at least twice a month.

Even with his mother’s help it still took a few late nights hunkered down in his kitchen- he could catch up on sleep anytime, it wasn’t a big deal, this was Normal and Fine and he was Handling It Well- before Ben had produced something he was actually quite proud of. Something he wanted to watch her taste. God, the way she ate. It was terrifying, if he was being honest with himself, but he couldn’t ever look away. It always reminded him of the documentary on animal planet he had seen about savanna predators.

“Oh, Sir- Mr. So- I mean,” Rey blew out a breath that puffed up her cheeks, “Ben. I didn’t see you.” She had almost run into him as he walked into the break room. “What do you have there?”

Her eyes were locked on the foil wrapped pie in his hands. Savanna predator. He fought the urge to set it at her feet and back away.

“Oh. This.” He lifted it up between them a bit. “A pie. Apple pie. I’ve been baking- I mean, learning to- I... thought it would be nice to bring something in. For everybody.” Nice. He was nailing this.

He set it down on the counter and jumped out of her way as she sprang for the foil. She looked up at him, hands already peeling it back, “Can I...?”

He nodded and watched in fascination as she dug out a piece and started eating it- christ, she wasn’t even using a plate, there were crumbs _everywhere_ \- and nearly choked when she licked the juice dribbling down her hand.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Poe sitting at the little round table by the fridge, staring at them, sandwich frozen halfway in the air on it’s journey to his mouth. Poe’s eyes flicked from the pie to Ben. From Ben to Rey. The pie. Ben. The pie.

“Oh my god,” his grin covered his entire fucking face, “oh my _god_ -“

“Dameron.” Ben’s voice sounded too loud for the small room, and he hoped his panicked tone could be misconstrued as authoritative. “My office. Now.”

Poe just about threw his sandwich down on the table. He didn’t seem to even notice how tight Ben was gripping his arm as he was steered firmly out of the break room, gleefully whispering in Ben’s ear, “Oh my god, oh my _god_ , let me help, I want to so bad, _please_ , oh my _god_.”

##### 45\. Laugh at his jokes

He couldn’t make himself laugh. No matter how smitten he was- and he could admit it now, he was actually _smitten_ , like he belonged in a Jane Austen novel, there was no other way to describe it- everyone who worked for him seemed to share two brain cells and four jokes between each of them and he just couldn’t laugh at something he hadn’t even thought was funny the first time.

But he could smile, could even have a hard time _not_ smiling at Rey struggling to get through a punchline he had heard at least seventeen times before because she was laughing too hard. It was intoxicating, and the co-workers by her cubicle were laughing at the joke too, even though she was barely halfway through wheezing it out.

She looked up at him, cheeks flaming, wiping a tear from her eye and he thought that maybe her breath hitched, suspiciously like a gasp, for a different reason as her eyes roved over to his cheek. Ben fought the urge to cover the dimple he knew was sitting just by his mouth. He let the corners of his eyes crinkle as they smiled at each other across the room.

##### 47\. “Accidentally” have your purse fly open, scattering its contents all over the street

“Oh!” He hated how high pitched the word came out when Poe gleefully slapped his briefcase to the elevator floor. There wasn’t a universe that existed in which he would live this down. Fucking “ _oh!_ ” like he was a victorian virgin who had a sudden onslaught of the vapors.

“Number 47,” Poe had whispered right before, like he was doing him a favor.

Rey turned around at Ben’s yelp and he knew he looked ridiculous trying to crouch his absurdly large body in such a small space. He hated that elevators were so damn small. Why did they even build them this way? Not everybody was the size of a fucking Keebler elf.

“Oh, here, let me,” she said as she bent down and scooped up the neat folders and single pen that had fallen out the top. Oh. He hadn't seen her wear that skirt before.

His face felt hot as she slid the folders- labeled of course, he wasn’t an _animal_ \- into the briefcase and when she looked at the pen in her hand he wondered if this was what actual cardiac arrest felt like before she slid that in too.

“This is nice,” she murmured, fingering the monogram tooled into the corner of the case.

“Thanks. It’s- um,” He swallowed as she handed it back, “it’s real leather.”

“Oh my god,” he heard Poe whimper behind him.

In the silence before the elevator reached their floor, Ben forgot that he was going to fire Poe as he looked at Rey and the little sliver of thigh between her hem and her stocking where her skirt had ridden up.


	2. HOW TO LOOK GOOD TO HIM

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He just wants her to think he's pretty :')

##### 54\. Tell him he’s handsome

“Ms. Johnson,” Ben nodded at her, “You look nice today.”

He was proud of the way he was able to say it, as if he didn’t think she looked terribly nice everyday, like he hadn’t practiced saying it in his bathroom mirror this morning, or in the rear view mirror at every stop light on his way to work, or in the warped reflection looking back at him from the brushed metal of the elevator wall not five minutes before. Ben wondered how he had got to this point, when he had started acting like he was a 19th century gentleman who had yet to know the touch of a woman, but there was a pretty flush on her cheeks now and suddenly all he could think of was what else he could say to make it stay there.

##### 56\. If you look good in sweaters, wear one on every third date.

This was fine. He could loosen up a little. He didn’t need the sharp, comforting lines of a freshly pressed suit to get his work done and he most certainly didn’t need a crisp button up- also freshly pressed of course, he had an image to uphold- to be a good boss.

Ben thought longingly of the smart black suit jacket hanging where he had set it out over his closet door the night before. He didn’t need it. Really. This was Fine. This was Fine, except that the walk through the cubicles to his office looked so very long and he swore it was quieter than usual and Kaydel forgot to hand him his coffee at reception, instead staring at the stretch of the cashmere across his shoulders.

“Excuse me,” someone gushed out, rushing to get around him, and just the sound of her voice sent a little thrill up his spine. 

“Pardon me.” He stepped a little nearer to his secretary’s desk so she could get by, hoping Kaydel’s fascination with his knitwear would evaporate soon so he could get his coffee and retreat to his office.

“Oh. Mr- Ben.” Rey had halted at his voice. He had never seen someone do an actual double take before and maybe he was staring too obviously at the way her mouth hung open a little because she snapped it shut a second later and shook her a head a tiny bit as if to shake away some errant thought.

Ben shifted and wished he had a suit jacket to hide the movement.

“You look different. This is nice,” she said, eyes trained on his chest, gesturing vaguely at the fabric.

He ought to wear more sweaters. Those suits could be awfully stifling, after all. Restrictive. Uptight.

“It looks so soft,” She said, and her hand twitched like she wanted to touch it. _Go ahead,_ he thought. _I won’t mind_. “I’ve been looking for something just like that. Where did you get it?”

Oh, conversation too. Ben loved wearing sweaters. Before he could answer her, his phone buzzed and he glanced down to see a text from Poe:

_#87: don’t tell her how much your clothes cost, bitch._

And then not a second later:

_you look cute today tho_

Ben looked around and almost jumped out of his skin when he saw Poe’s eyes poking out just over one of the cubicle walls, watching them.

Right. Poe was right, even if Ben was going to fire him later. He signed her paychecks, he knew what she made here, and he definitely couldn’t talk about his two hundred dollar sweater while she sipped tea- the way her lips wrapped around the rim _really_ shouldn’t be turning him on, but maybe he was a bit of a monster after all- out of her battered thermos. He couldn’t even make out what the design on the front might have been before it got so faded and scratched.

“I- uh. I have to take this call.” And they both stared down at the phone in his hand, which was not ringing. _Great._

“Excuse me.” He gave her a nod that was really more of a bow and ignored the high pitched screaming in his head as he walked past her, ignoring the way Poe was shooting him a thumbs up over the cubicle wall, and past reception and Kaydel, who had absentmindedly started sipping from his coffee while she watched the interaction, and marched to his office.

##### 58\. Get a sunburn

Well this was the easiest one, especially for him and his frankly vampiric skin, but Ben couldn’t see the point in it as he scratched at the redness on his nose.

“That looks rough,” Rey said, and he hadn’t even noticed her entering the break room. “What did you do, step outside for longer than a minute? Forget your SPF 6000?”

Her eyes were twinkling. Teasing. She was teasing him, and it didn't even surprise him this time when his stupid heart skipped a beat because he was already waiting for it and he was so fucking smitten- and _god_ , he didn't even hate it anymore, not really- that he couldn't wait for her to say something that would make it skip again.

Ben made some joke back he couldn’t hear over the sirens blaring in his brain.

##### (64) Buy a full length mirror and take a good look before you go greet them

When it arrived he had shut the door in Poe’s grinning face, feeling silly, and set it up in the back corner of his office.

His hindbrain assaulted him all throughout the day with images of fucking her in front of it, of having her face it and watch, of making her keep her eyes trained on what a mess he was making of her.

It was nice to have something to adjust his sweaters in before he walked out of his office, though.

##### 70\. Don’t be too fussy

He stared down at the mustard on his sweater- maroon today- and felt the area under his left eye twitch.

Finn looked like he was praying for death, still clutching the mustard bottle he had been waving around to whatever story he had been babbling before. Rey was watching them both with wide eyes. 

Ben swallowed. He tried to smile, really, and it wasn’t his fault if it came out like a grimace or that it sounded like a threat when he finally grit out, “It’s fine. It’s just a shirt. Don’t,” the twitching under his eye was really getting distracting now, “don’t worry about it.”

He could tell everyone was shocked, but he couldn’t bring himself to care, couldn’t even properly appreciate the wondering smile and light flush that spread across Rey’s face because he was already leaving the break room to avoid committing homicide.

##### 72\. Don’t whine- girls who whine stay on the vine!

Ben could tell she wasn’t listening even though her eyes were trained on his chest and every now and then she wet her lips like she wanted to speak. 

“Ms. Johnson? Did you hear me, about the McCall’s account?” She nodded, eyes now roving down his arms where he had pushed up his sweater sleeves to combat the abnormally warm fall day, but he got the feeling that no, she hadn’t actually heard him about the McCall’s account. He flexed his shoulders, experimentally. She licked her lips again.

“Rey?” he tried, and her name felt good on his tongue. 

“Do you think it’ll stain?” Rey was staring at the mustard that he hadn’t been able to get out.

“Maybe.” Ben tried to control his tone. He liked this sweater. She had told him the color looked nice on his skin. It was comfortable and it fit him and it was expensive enough that he actually didn’t like it, strange as the thought was, when his subordinates squirted condiments on it at work. 

“That’s a shame,” she said, “It’s really nice.” Time seemed to slow down and he watched her hand move through the air and lightly touch the stain. Her cheeks were red again and he couldn’t breathe.

“Finn was terrified,” she said, “he thought you were going to fire him.” And she laughed, like the idea was ridiculous and they were sharing a little joke.

Ben laughed too. It was just a sweater.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I went ahead and upped the rating because I was right, I am in fact trash and chapter 4 gets wild y'all


	3. HOW TO LAND HIM

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> they're in love, your honor

##### 77\. Tell his friends nice things about him

“Ms. Johnson has been doing really good work lately, don’t you think?” Ben said as he shuffled through the reports on his desk.

When he didn’t hear a reply, he looked up at Finn, who was just staring at him with his mouth working open and shut like some oversized, bipedal fish. Poe was standing next to him, grinning like a maniac.

And later, as he watched the sway of her hips take her out of the break room and said, “She looks nice today, doesn’t she?” Rose stared at him hard. He wondered if he took it too far, if this was inappropriate for an office setting- and oh _god_ what if he had made her uncomfortable- but then Rose smiled at him encouragingly and agreed that yes, Rey looked pretty every day.

##### 78\. Send his mother a birthday card

Rey was fixing herself a cup of tea by the fridge. The mug she was pouring sugar into was such a horrid shade of orange that Ben had spent an inordinate amount of his time at this company wondering where on earth it could have possibly come from every time he opened the break room cabinet. 

“Do you like it?” She had caught him staring at it and mistook his judgment for interest. “I made it myself,” she said proudly, and he pictured her hunched over a pottery wheel with clay on her face and garish orange paint on her fingers and for some reason he was smiling now.

“It’s hideous,” he couldn’t help himself from saying, because it really was _hideous_. “But I do like it,” which he couldn’t help himself from saying because he really did like it. 

She gave him an impish grin and went back to her tea. He forced his eyes away from the amount of sugar- irresponsible, really- she thought was appropriate for a 10-ounce mug and remembered why he had walked in here in the first place. He cleared his throat and looked sideways at Finn, who was sitting behind them at the table.

“Finn,” Ben asked as he pretended he needed to heat up his coffee in the microwave, “you wouldn’t happen to have a birthday coming up?”

“I…wha-“ Finn cut himself off, clearly caught off guard, nervous eyes darting from Ben to the door as he shook his head. Ben just grunted in reply, more preoccupied with the way Rey was now letting sugar pour onto the floor instead of into her horrible mug while she watched them.

##### 79\. Ask his mother for her recipes.

“I’ve been getting into cooking recently.” He had, actually. The pie incident had unlocked something. “I heard you know your way around the kitchen.”

Ben figured he had made some progress over the past few days because Finn no longer looked terrified, just completely confused.

“Any recipes you think I’d have luck with?”

And as Finn stuttered on, becoming more and more comfortable and enthusiastic, Rey chimed in with her favorites and Ben thought about cooking for her in his kitchen and watching her eat like the feral beast she was and kissing her while she sat on his countertop.

##### 80\. Talk to his father about business and agree that taxes are too high!

“So, Rose,” he cleared his throat and sat across from her and Rey at the conference room table, “taxes huh?”

Rose looked like she knew something he didn’t, her eyes twinkling at the dinky pen in his hand as she sagely nodded her head.

##### 106\. Buy him an amusing or particularly appropriate present every once in a while. But don’t make it too expensive.

Ben stared at the mug sitting innocently on his desk. And it seemed to him that the mug, horrible green and purple stripes proudly shining under the fluorescent lights, stared right back. He studied its wavy rim and lumpy sides and weighed his options:

1\. He could give her the mug and tell her he had thought of her when he saw it and then maybe ask her if she was free for dinner, risking the chance that she might say no or the equally terrifying chance that she might say yes, or

2\. He could _not_ give her the mug and be stuck with quite possibly the ugliest mug ever in existence, which he did not need because he had one mug at home and one mug at the office and anything more would just be excessive, or

3\. He could put the mug in the break room cabinet and hope that when she saw it she might guess it was from him and they could keep going on like they had been for weeks now.

Rey had horrible taste. Or maybe she had amazing taste; Ben couldn’t really tell at this point, but knew that if he chose number three she would at least use the mug. He could almost picture her pouring seven packets of sugar into it, could almost hear the clink as she stirred it with one of her cheap ballpoint pens, could almost see her eyes crinkling over the rim as she cracked a joke and laughed too hard at it. He would like that, and it would make her happy. He knew it would. He knew it would, but he was tired. He was tired of the list and of rules and of embarrassing himself, and as he thought about all of her smiles and about touches on his arm and blushes on her cheeks, he thought that maybe Rey was done with the list too. That maybe another option might make her just as happy. Maybe he would-

“Oh god, that’s atrocious.”

Ben nodded his head to agree and then started when he realized the voice had come from _outside_ and not _inside_ his head, and his knee, which barely fit under the desk in the first place, slammed up into the wood. He screwed his eyes shut and tried to ignore the pins and needles shooting up his leg. Deep breaths. He was going to fucking fire Poe, it was happening today, and it was happening now.

He opened his eyes to see Poe holding up the mug to the light, inspecting it closely. Yeah. He was going to fire him so hard.

“It really is hideous. Don’t tell me you actually spent money on thi- oh my _god_ ,” Poe had that horrible look on his face again, that look that made Ben want to punch him as hard as he could and run for cover at the same time, “oh my god, is this for Rey? It’s _perfect_.”

And Poe set it down on top of The List, which Ben had printed out after retyping in a more appropriate font- he couldn’t in good conscience have anything typed sans serif sitting on his desk- and hurried out of the office with that same stupid grin plastered on his face, yelling while he walked, “Rey!” 

He rushed after him, knocking his chair back and scrambling out from behind his desk, but he knew he was already too late when he heard Poe say “Ben’s got something for you in his office!” and when he saw Poe mouth, “you’re welcome!” over her shoulder, too late when she rushed by and ran into his office and as he heard her “oh, _hell_ yeah,” when she saw the mug. 

He was going to fire Poe, but he would do it later. Right now, he was going to march into his office and finally act like a fucking adult and not a character from one of the shitty CW dramas that Leia was always telling him to watch with actors in their early thirties pretending to be fifteen and give her the stupid, ugly, horrendous mug and tell her it reminded him of her because fucking _everything_ reminded him of her now and then hope that she could do something about it because he sure as hell couldn’t.

Rey was looking down at his desk with her back to him and he smiled at the tag sticking up from the neck of her blouse. Something was buzzing in the back of his brain, something that sounded like a bit of a warning, but he couldn’t quite place where the mounting alarm was coming from. He fidgeted with the hem of his sweater, adjusted his watch. The buzzing was getting louder. 

His eyes flicked to the mug, still on his desk to the right of Rey. Alarm bells were ringing now. She wasn’t holding it. She was looking at something else.

And then Ben felt his last two brain cells finally make the connection his instincts had been begging him to make, and his stomach dropped and it felt like he couldn't fill his lungs up with enough air. Rey turned around slowly, The List in her hands. Her eyes were narrowed and fierce- it was fucking _ridiculous_ how even right now that was doing something for him- and her cheeks were pink as she darted her tongue out to wet her lips.

“Close the door, Ben.” 

_Fuck._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I say "mug" probably fifty times in this chapter. The English language is beautiful :,)


	4. WILD IDEAS- ANYTHING GOES

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now Kiss.

He felt a bit like he was shutting the door to his own tomb when he pulled the door closed behind him.

“I think,” Rey said, looking down at the list, “that you should sit down.” The way she said it did not sound like a suggestion at all.

Ben couldn’t even think of the last time he had let somebody else tell him what to do, but before he could consider that fact that maybe it had actually been never he found himself firmly planted in the chair behind his desk.

“You’ve been acting different, Ben,” she murmured, stalking towards him. “Is this why?” and she motioned with the list in her hands.

A thousand possible answers flitted through his brain, a million excuses, but what came out of his mouth was “Yes.” He wondered if she could hear how loud his heart was beating.

“You’ve been nice. To my friends. To me. You haven’t yelled at Hux for days. Kaydel said you’ve been going to lunch with your parents.” She was close now, leaning over him. He couldn’t latch on to a single thought, nothing except-

“For you,” he breathed out, “all for you.” His breath ghosted over her face as she stood over him and he could almost imagine it was the cause of the pinkness spreading there.

“You’ve been writing with my pen,” she said and Ben must have imagined the soft touch of her lips just below his ear.

“For you.” Her hands were in his hair.

“The pie?” An open mouthed kiss to his jaw.

“For you,” he gasped out, and she rewarded him by pressing her mouth fully to his. He chased after her when she pulled away too soon but she was already moving on, hands roving over his chest now.

“And these?” She hissed, plucking at the fabric of his sweater, untucking it from his pants. “Were these for me too?”

Ben just nodded. His eyes felt dry because he refused to blink, because he knew if he closed them there was chance that this was not actually happening and she would be gone when he opened them again, because surely Rey wasn’t lowering herself to her knees and skimming her hands along the skin she had just uncovered, and she surely wasn’t leaning in to nose at the trail of dark hair disappearing into his slacks- _fuck_ \- and surely the fingers hooked around his waistline to bring him closer couldn’t be real.

But then one of her hands drifted lower and his hips jumped forward without his permission and he was rubbing up into the palm that cupped him through his trousers and nothing could convince him that this wasn’t Real and Happening and that he needed to Catch Up _immediately_. 

“Rey,” he gasped out.

“Ben,” she hummed back. It sounded like she was smiling, and he just knew it was at how whiny he sounded.

Her other hand slid down and pressed him back into the chair, and when he couldn’t help another jerk of his hips she pressed back firmly with a challenge on her face, holding him there, and for the second time today Ben Solo let someone else tell him what to do as he tried his hardest to keep still.

“What else,” she was breathing hard and he felt his cock twitch under her palm at her low tone, “what else did you do for me? Tell me. Tell me all the nice things you did for me, Ben.”

Fuck. She was staring up at him with dark eyes and suddenly the documentary he always thought of when she was eating came to mind.

“Ask- ask for advice. I asked for your advice.”

“Good,” she breathed out, and he could feel the warmth of her breath seep through his slacks. “What else?”

“Learn to paint,” he gasped out, “learned to paint- for you.”

She was nuzzling at his cock through his clothes now, and Ben couldn’t focus on anything outside of the sensation, of her closeness, until-

“More, Ben.” And he could never say no to anything she asked so he tilted his head back and tried to concentrate.

“Learned funny stories- laughed at your jokes,” and he was just gasping out anything he could remember, anything to make her happy, anything to make her keep going, “learned to- _fuck_ \- learned to bake. Wanna bake you so many things. Wanna cook for you-” he broke off into a groan loud enough for him to wonder through the haze in his brain if anyone in the office had heard him. She was unbuckling his belt with fast, jerky movements that were almost hindering more than helping in her haste to free him.

“Fucking _knew_ it,” she mumbled to herself as he sprang free. “ _Christ._ ”

Ben had to agree, _Christ_ , because she was touching his cock now and the feeling of skin on skin was sending shocks to all his extremities.

“What else, Ben?” she asked, and then she spat messily into her hand and it looked so wild and so much like something that she would do that he couldn’t force any words past his tight throat. Her hand slowed, gliding more smoothly up and down his shaft. Pleasure. “What _else_?” And her hand tightened over his swollen head and stayed there.

He fought wildly against the urge to fuck himself into her hand, trying to be _good_ , and this was getting ridiculous because he had never wanted to be fucking _good_ for anyone but here he was, holding himself stock still and trying to force hoarse words out of his mouth.

“Glasses,” he rasped out, and she rewarded him by slowly circling his head and pumping him, just once, and it was too much and it wasn’t enough so he kept going, “glasses, at work. Sunburn- _fuck_ , just like that- diet...I- glasses, I started wearing my glasses,” and he thought he heard her chuckle, but Rey was well and truly jacking him off now and he couldn’t care about much more then the warmth and friction and the pleasure shooting through him.

“I like your glasses,” she panted out. Her breath was so warm on his cock and he could just barely feel her lips graze him and then she asked, “What else, Ben?” before she slipped her mouth around him without waiting for an answer.

His hands moved of their own accord, reaching for her hair before he could remind himself to be good for her. She hissed at him as soon as she sensed his movement and jerked her head back. His cock felt cold without her mouth. Ben whimpered- god, what was _wrong_ with him- and gripped the arms of his chair.

“Good,” she whispered, before taking him again and he was almost angry at the little thrill that went straight down his spine to his crotch at her praise.

“Rey, please,” when had he ever begged anyone before, _what the fuck_ , “let me-“

“What,” she gave a lick up his shaft and glared at him, “Else?” She cupped his balls, softly massaging as she sat back on her heels, eyes still fierce.

“Mug, got you a mug- nice to your friends- glasses- ballpoint pen,” it was all gibberish now, but her mouth was back on him. “Pen... glasses- _oh_ \- mirror-glasses and, and sweaters- and glasses,” and of _course_ this was the word he was stuck on, but she was relentless and taking him deeper now.

“Glasses,” he whimpered as she took him as far as she could and deliberately swallowed around him, but he kept his hands where they were and glared back down at her. 

“Glasses.” He said it like a curse and stopped being so good and thrusted a little into her mouth. She gasped and he felt her throat work around his cock again. She was working her tongue along the underside of his shaft now, and he couldn’t focus on anything outside of the sweetness of her little mouth. The hand that had been gripping the base of him fell away and he mourned the loss for a second until he realized where it had gone.

“Fuck, Rey. You like this? You like sucking my cock at work? You like me telling you,” he couldn’t stop talking now, the words were just spilling out, “all the fucking things I did for you? You like me begging like this?”

Now she was whining, bouncing up and down on her little hand with his cock in her mouth.

“You got your fingers in your cunt, Rey?” She keened and nodded and the vibrations almost made him lose it.

“Play with that pretty clit, sweetheart.”

Her whines were like music.

“Want it so bad, don’t you? You wanna come?” She sobbed out a yes and he could tell she was getting tired and the angle was hard for her to keep going, and he wanted to touch her so fucking bad, but now he was feeling a little bit petty.

“Poor Rey,” he crooned, “do you want me to touch you? Want me to fill up that greedy cunt? Want this cock in you?”

Immediately she was frantically scrambling up into his lap, pressing kisses along his neck and all over his face. The fingers that were in her pussy were wet against his throat. She lifted her hips and was about to sink down and it took everything in his power to bring his hands to her hips and stop her.

“Ask me nicely.” Yeah, he was definitely feeling petty.

“Please,” she whined out, squirming in the air, “please,” and it was almost enough for him to give in.

“Please what, Rey?” He let himself gently suck her earlobe between his lips.

“ _Oh_ ,” she sighed, and then “Please. Please, touch me. Fuck me.” No hesitation, though her narrowed eyes promised payback later.

“I would,” he said slowly, “but I think you were doing such a good job on your own, sweetheart,” and then he got to see those eyes flash with anger before he turned her in his lap so that she was straddling one of his thighs.

“You wanted me to be good, sweetheart. You wanted to be in charge,” Ben hummed, “No touching, right? Let me be _good_ for you.” Definitely petty. Maybe a little bratty too, but Ben didn’t want to dwell on the negative aspects of his behavior right now.

He used his hands on her waist to drag her forward and back on his thigh, to give her an idea of what he wanted her to do and as furious as he thought she probably was right now, Rey continued the motion, dragging her core along his thigh, tight moans and gasps escaping as she threw her head back and ground her hips down and he leaned forward to whisper in her ear,

“Fuck, just like that. Look at yourself,” he swiveled the chair until she could see herself in the mirror, “look at you. Such a beautiful fucking mess. Wanna come so bad after sucking my cock,” her reflection was nodding, looking almost delirious as she rode his thigh.

“That’s right- use my thigh, sweetheart. Make yourself come on my trousers. So wet,” and she was, wet and hot and beautiful with her skirt all bunched up around her hips and her hair sticking to her sweaty neck, “you’re gonna leave a fucking stain.”

Rey was panting and he could feel her thighs trembling with effort. She was saying something over and over under her breath.

“What’s that, sweetheart? You say please so nice. Let me hear you.”

She was glaring at him again in the mirror and Ben relished the heat in her eyes.

“Say it.”

When she started begging she had tears in the corners of her eyes, and at this point Ben could admit he was a monster but those eyes could melt stone, so he tipped her back against his chest and hushed her and dragged her hands up her torso.

“Play with these pretty tits for me,” he grunted out, done with this game now, and shoved the soaked gusset of her underwear aside and stroked her slit lightly.

“Look,” he said, “look in the mirror I bought for you and watch me finger this pussy.” Rey’s moan when he sunk a finger slowly into her was the best sound he had ever heard, but he could hardly focus on it now that he knew what she felt like inside.

Her head fell back on his shoulder, but he hissed at her to keep watching as he added another finger and slowly started circling her clit.

“More,” Rey panted, “Ben, please, more. Please, just-“ and one hand dropped from her breasts as she groped behind her for his cock.

“You sure, Rey?” He said it gently, and when she nodded her eyes had less fire but no less warmth so he shifted her around to face him again and finally his neglected cock was easing ever so slightly into her opening.

“Are you sure?” he asked again, “I don’t- I don’t have a cond-“ and she huffed this time and sounded exasperated when she spat out “ _yes_ , Ben,” and she angled her hips back and took all of him.

Warmth. She was so fucking warm, hot, blazing, and already he could feel her fluttering around him. So tight. Dripping around him.

He looked up at her when his sight returned and saw her eyes squeezed shut, mouth frozen in a little “o”.

“Fuck,” he leaned forward and kissed her, and why hadn’t they been doing this, why had they wasted so much time, why had they been doing anything else when they could have been doing _this_.

He knew he wasn’t going to last, because this was Rey and he was inside her and she was moaning, so he dropped a hand down and started circling her clit while he drove up into her. She was meeting him with every thrust, and he had never found a rhythm this quickly with anyone, but of course this would be perfect too.

“Come on, sweetheart, please,” oh, he was back to begging now. Great. 

He was pressing frantic circles, thick finger slipping around with how wet she was from this, from him, and finally he felt her walls pulse around him and her limbs were shaking and she was crying out a muffled “yes” around the hand he had hastily slapped over her mouth- “ _quiet_ , sweetheart,” -and he let go, emptying himself inside her. 

For a minute, Ben just held her crushed against him, ignoring the sweat on both of their bodies, and listened to her heartbeat slow down. He didn’t think his would ever return to normal, but that seemed like a problem for later. She slipped off of his lap with shaky legs and leaned back on his desk.

Her fingers were having trouble buttoning up her blouse, so he did it for her, kissing the blush that he saw on her cheeks when he got to the top.

“Ben, I-“

“Dinner,” he blurted out. There was a moment of silence while Rey looked at him with an eyebrow raised. Ben couldn’t believe that after everything they had just done, this was what had his ears flaming.

“Sorry. What I meant was- I mean. We could...” he really thought he had fucked all the awkwardness out of his system, but apparently that was not the case, “...Dinner,” he finished lamely.

Rey was smiling at him anyway.

“Are you free tonight?”

He said yes before she even got the question out all the way, amazed when his frantic nodding didn't send her running.

“It’s a date then,” Rey said, and with her smile still stretched out so pretty she slipped off his desk and started to make her way to the door.

“Oh, wait,” Ben called out, snatching up the ugly mug he had got her, “don’t forget this. I,” he took a deep breath, “I thought of you when I saw it.”

When he handed it to her, her smile looked how a laugh sounded.

“Do you like it?” Ben winced when it came out shyly, a term he was confident had never before been used to describe the tone of anything he had ever said.

“It’s hideous,” she said, grinning, “but I do like it.”

******

Poe’s chin was propped up in his hands, sitting in Ben’s chair, at Ben’s desk, watching him enter his office the next morning.

He was going to fire him.

Poe waggled his eyebrows at him.

Ben tried to ignore it.

“So what did you guys talk about? You sure were in here for a long time.” Poe was grinning and his eyebrows were still doing that idiotic dance on his idiotic forehead.

“We... we talked about the list. Not that it’s any of your business.” He turned to adjust his clothes in the mirror, but flushed when he remembered how her reflection had looked staring back at him yesterday and he spun around.

“Oh my god,” Poe said, gleefully looking at the violent shade of red covering Ben’s ears, “in here? You _didn’t_.”

Ben glanced back at the mirror. He didn’t believe it either, but it he had memories of her at dinner and in his kitchen and in his bed and plans for more to prove it.

“Oh my god, you did. Where?” Poe was looking far more excited and invested than Ben thought was appropriate in a situation like this, but he couldn’t help the guilty look he shot at the chair Poe was currently sitting in.

“Oh, _gross_ ,” and Poe shot up out of the chair and came around to clap Ben on the back.

Poe never lost his stupid grin as Ben walked him firmly outside the office, still babbling, “But still, I didn’t think you had it in you, Boss, I gotta say I’m proud-“ and Ben slammed the door in his face.

He went around to his desk and pulled his ballpoint pen out of his briefcase- they really weren’t so bad once you got used to them- and got to work, thinking about hazel eyes and second dates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **CW: Ben and Rey don't use protection and don't have a discussion about birth control or sexual health, because this is a work of fiction and not real life so they can be stupid. Practice safe sex, y'all.**  
>  _________
> 
> I've literally been living off of your comments because turns out I'm a thirsty bitch for validation. Thank you to everyone who stuck it out this far with me, my awkward Ben and Rey, and my horribly irresponsible use of italics and intensifiers.
> 
> -Mira


End file.
